FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

For Information, Contact Public Affairs
Channing Phillips (202) 514-6933
August 25, 2006

Third leader of major PCP drug trafficking organization in Northeast Washington , D.C. sentenced

Washington, D.C. - A third leader of a major PCP drug trafficking organization in Northeast Washington, D.C., William “Mike” Simmons, has been sentenced for his role in the organization’s drug trafficking activities, U.S. Attorney Kenneth L. Wainstein announced today.

Simmons, 32, of the 1200 block of G Street, NE, Washington, D.C., was sentenced today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia before the Honorable Rosemary Collyer to a term of 22 years in prison for engaging in a narcotics trafficking and a racketeering conspiracy. The Court also imposed concurrent sentences of 22 years without parole for three convictions of distribution of liquid phencyclidine (PCP). Evidence at trial and at sentencing characterized Simmons’ role in the conspiracy as a personal assistant to the convicted drug king-pin and leader, John L. Franklin. On May 25, 2006, Simmons was convicted after a three-month long jury trial along with four other leaders of a criminal racketeering drug distribution organization known as the “M Street Crew.”

Last week, on August 18, Judge Collyer sentenced John L. Franklin, 33, formerly of 1300 block Belmont Street, NW, Washington, D.C., to multiple periods of life in prison without the possibility of parole and an additional 30 years consecutively imposed for various federal firearm violations. Franklin had been convicted by a jury of leading the “M Street Crew” and violating the federal drug king-pin statute. Earlier, on August 17, Judge Collyer sentenced a convicted coconspirator, George “Shug” Wilson, 37 of Capitol Heights, Maryland, to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

On May 25, 2006, a federal jury returned guilty verdicts against Franklin, Wilson, Simmons, and two other leaders of the M Street Crew, Joseph Blackson and William “Dee” Robinson. The crew conducted a notorious phencyclidine (PCP) and ecstacy distribution ring that operated in the neighborhood of 18th and M Streets, NE, between 2000 and 2004. The jury found that Franklin had managed, organized and supplied a drug enterprise that distributed more that 30 kilograms (more than 12 gallons) of liquid PCP. Evidence at trial established that as leader of the M Street Crew, Franklin’s PCP and ecstacy distribution activity generated profits for him alone of $15,000 to $30,000 per week during 2002 and 2003.

Two other leaders in the M Street Crew, William Dee Robinson, 30, of the 1700 block of M Street, NE, and Joseph Blackson, 29, the brother of John Franklin, and resident of the block of 2723 Shipley Terrace, SE, are scheduled for sentencing on September 5 and the week of August 28, respectively. Under federal law and the federal sentencing guidelines, each of these defendants also face the possibility life in prison.

At sentencing, prosecutors stated in pleadings and in court that this prosecution represented the culmination of a concerted effort to disrupt and dismantle the entire M Street Crew. Over 30 participants in the M Street Crew were arrested and charged in a massive coordinated effort on March 16, 2004. The prosecution remarked that the M Street Crew was a racketeering drug enterprise that had taken over the 18th and M Street neighborhood and turned it into their own private marketplace for drug trafficking.

The prosecution grew out of a long-term FBI/MPD alliance called the Safe Streets Task force that targeted violent drug trafficking gangs in the District of Columbia. The Safe Streets Initiative is funded in part by the Baltimore Washington High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area as well as the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force.

In announcing today’s sentence, U.S. Attorney Wainstein commended the actions of FBI Special Agent Richard Stallings and MPD Detective Joseph Sopata, who lead the investigative team. In addition, the U.S. Attorney commended the two prosecutors, Assistant U.S. Attorney Darlene Soltys and John P. Dominguez, who presented the evidence during the long trial and who argued in